lca_algebraic: a library bringing symbolic calculus to LCA for comprehensive sensitivity analysis

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - In this paper, we present new tools to ease the analysis of the effect of variability and uncertainty on life cycle assessment (LCA) results....     

Combined cold, acid, ethanol shocks in Oenococcus oeni: effects on membrane fluidity and cell viability

The effects of combined cold, acid and ethanol on the membrane physical state and on the survival of Oenococcus oeni were investigated. Membrane fluidity was monitored on intact whole O. oeni cells subjected to single and combined cold, acid and ethanol shocks by using fluorescence anisotropy with 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) as a probe. Results showed that cold shocks (14 and 8 degrees C) strongly rigidified plasma membrane but did not affect cell survival. In contrast, ethanol shocks (10-14% v/v) induced instantaneous membrane fluidisation followed by rigidification and resulted in low viability. Acid shocks (pH 4.0 and pH 3.0) exerted a rigidifying effect on membrane without affecting cell viability. Whatever the shock orders, combined cold (14 degrees C) and ethanol (14% v/v) shocks resulted in strong membrane rigidification. Interestingly, O. oeni survived combined cold and ethanol shocks more efficiently than single ethanol shock. Membrane rigidification was induced by ethanol-and-acid (10% v/v - pH 3.5) shock and correlated with total cell death. In contrast, O. oeni recovered its viability when subjected to cold (8 degrees C)-then-ethanol-and-acid shock which strongly rigidified the membrane. Our results suggested a positive short-term effect of combined cold, acid and ethanol shocks on membrane fluidity and viability of O. oeni.     

Heartening news for head muscle development

Branchiomeric craniofacial muscles differ from all other skeletal muscles with respect to embryological origin, motor innervation and upstream activators of myogenesis. A series of recent studies has revealed a striking juxtaposition and overlapping genetic program of craniofacial skeletal muscle progenitor cells with a population of cells giving rise to cardiac muscle. The divergent myogenic fates of adjacent progenitor cells revealed by these data provide a new framework for the study of craniofacial myogenesis.     

Spreading free-riding snow sports represent a novel serious threat for wildlife

Stress generated by humans on wildlife by continuous development of outdoor recreational activities is of increasing concern for biodiversity conservation. Human disturbance often adds to other negative impact factors affecting the dynamics of vulnerable populations. It is not known to which extent the rapidly spreading free-riding snow sports actually elicit detrimental stress (allostatic overload) upon wildlife, nor what the potential associated fitness and survival costs are. Using a non-invasive technique, we evaluated the physiological stress response induced by free-riding snow sports on a declining bird species of Alpine ecosystems. The results of a field experiment in which radiomonitored black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) were actively flushed from their snow burrows once a day during four consecutive days showed an increase in the concentration of faecal stress hormone (corticosterone) metabolites after disturbance. A large-scale comparative analysis across the southwestern Swiss Alps indicated that birds had higher levels of these metabolites in human-disturbed versus undisturbed habitats. Disturbance by snow sport free-riders appears to elevate stress, which potentially represents a new serious threat for wildlife. The fitness and survival costs of allostatic adjustments have yet to be estimated.     

Lipophosphoramidates as lipidic part of lipospermines for gene delivery

The DNA compacting properties of polyamines (especially spermine) are well-known, hence the use of spermine as the cationic part in several synthetic DNA carriers. Here, we describe the synthesis of modified spermines, with a "lipophosphoramidate" as the lipidic part, and their use for efficient in vitro transfection. Physicochemical measurements (particle size, zeta potentials, pKa determination) and gel retardation assays were also performed. Theoretical membrane-disrupting ability was established by FRET. Taken together, our results indicate that lipophosphoramidates constitute an interesting alternative to "classical" lipidic parts of cationic lipids used as DNA carriers.     

Likelihood and approximate likelihood analyses of genetic structure in a linear habitat: performance and robustness to model mis-specification

We evaluate the performance of maximum likelihood (ML) analysis of allele frequency data in a linear array of populations. The parameters are a mutation rate and either the dispersal rate in a stepping stone model or a dispersal rate and a scale parameter in a geometric dispersal model. An approximate procedure known as maximum product of approximate conditional (PAC) likelihood is found to perform as well as ML. Mis-specification biases may occur because the importance sampling algorithm is formally defined in term of mutation and migration rates scaled by the total size of the population, and this size may differ widely in the statistical model and in reality. As could be expected, ML generally performs well when the statistical model is correctly specified. Otherwise, mutation rate estimates are much closer to mutation probability scaled by number of demes in the statistical model than scaled by number of demes in reality when mutation probability is high and dispersal is most limited. This mis-specification bias actually has practical benefits. However, opposite results are found in opposite conditions. Migration rate estimates show roughly similar trends, but they may not always be easily interpreted as low-bias estimates of dispersal rate under any scaling. Estimation of the dispersal scale parameter is also affected by mis-specification of the number of demes, and the different biases compensate each other in such a way that good estimation of the so-called neighborhood size (or more precisely the product of population density and mean-squared parent-offspring dispersal distance) is achieved. Results congruent with these findings are found in an application to a damselfly data set.     

Thermal and hydrodynamic modelling of active catheters for interventional radiology

Interventional radiologists desire to improve their operating tools such as catheters. Active catheters in which the tip is moved using shape memory alloy actuators activated using the Joule effect present a promising approach for easier navigation in the small vessels. However, the increase in temperature caused by this Joule effect must be controlled in order to prevent damage to blood cells and tissues. This paper is devoted to the simulation and experimental validation of a fluid-thermal model of an active catheter prototype. Comparisons between computer-predicted and experimentally measured temperatures are presented for both experiments in air and water at 37°C. Good agreement between the computational and experimental results is found, demonstrating the validity of the developed computer model. These comparisons enable us to highlight some important issues in the modelling process and to determine the optimal current for the activation of the catheter.     

A hierarchical Bayesian network approach for linkage disequilibrium modeling and data-dimensionality reduction prior to genome-wide association studies

Background  

Discovering the genetic basis of common genetic diseases in the human genome represents a public health issue. However, the dimensionality of the genetic data (up to 1 million genetic markers) and its complexity make the statistical analysis a challenging task.